What $2.5 Billion Can Buy: An Evaluation of the Broadband Initiatives Program

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), implemented as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) had an impact on farm productivity, defined as per capita farm sales, in the counties that received any BIP funding. Appropriate techniques are utilized to account for selection bias (the probability that a county will receive BIP funding) and spatial autocorrelation (the tendency of neighboring counties to have correlated outcomes). The findings suggest that BIP funding had a small but short-term impact on per capita farm sales. However, the main effect of BIP funding was not direct, but instead a regional spillover.

Keywords: Broadband Initiatives Program, BIP, rural development, infrastructure